Dispatches from the Moth

Interview

Dispatches from the Moth · Posted On: Oct 22, 2019

MOTHerview with Storyteller Nancy Mahl

by Suzanne Rust

How did you know that this was the Moth story you had to tell? My congregation Beth Hatikvah, and Fountain Baptist Church, both of Summit, New Jersey, did a joint community project with The Moth. Our rabbi, Hannah Orden, pushed me to participate because she knew I had a great story to tell. But…I told this one instead. The story I thought I’d tell is about meeting my long-lost sister, Elizabeth Rose. But once I really started to think about it, the more it seemed I couldn’t tell it wit...

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Dispatches from the Moth · Posted On: Jul 30, 2019

The MOTHerview with Storyteller Ritija Gupta

by Suzanne Rust

How did you know that this was the Moth story you had to tell? I felt honored that this story of longing and connection, both to romantic love and familial love, had some real value to others. Wherever there is space to connect with people, especially about something that encourages me to be vulnerable and introspective, I feel really drawn to it, and the Moth team and audience are absolutely amazing at creating that space. It sounds like you had be...

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Dispatches from the Moth · Posted On: Jun 05, 2019

MOTHerview with Storyteller NeShaune Lasley

by Suzanne Rust

NeShaune’s father may be gone, but his spirit of encouragement is here to stay. How did you know that this was the Moth story you had to tell? The night I told the story I was excited, nervous and anxious about the idea of telling it. But then a Bill Withers’ song came on and I was flooded with feelings of my dad and all the things he made me believe I could do, and I just needed people to know. I wanted someone else to feel what I was feeling…the strength, the love, the co...

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Dispatches from the Moth · Posted On: May 30, 2019

MOTHerview with Storyteller Edgar Oliver

by Suzanne Rust

While in military school, a stroke of good luck helps Edgar save face—and some important documents.What about you is most Southern? When I was growing up Savannah, it languished in a beautiful sort of desolation and decay. It had a haunted quality, like a ghost town, a quality I found very beautiful. Mother taught Helen and me to love all that was desolate, decayed and abandoned, and founded a society called the Society for the Preservation of Decay. It had only three members, M...

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Dispatches from the Moth · Posted On: May 02, 2019

The MOTHerview with Storyteller Frank Almond

by Jessica Cepeda

How did you know this was The Moth story you had to tell? I first considered telling it as a Moth story when Meg [Bowles, the Moth’s Senior Director] sent me an email probably in 2015. And then, it took a long time for it all to come together. In 2014, there was this Vanity Fair article and that got a lot of attention. It was big, and it was the most comprehensive. “This would work really well,” you know. I remember it took us a long time wanting to schedule or even get a concept of how to p...

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